Roman Ruins in the Greater Yarmouth Area

A favourite part of any holiday for me is exploring the history of an area. I love walking around castles and stately homes and investigating ruins and evidence of long gone civilisations. We've explored many areas of the country but today I'm sharing a look at an area I've never had the pleasure of visiting. Great Yarmouth always seems to be a location for a fantastic family holiday but I had no idea it had this much history. I'm sharing a guest post from the Great Yarmouth Official Tourism Website today, which introduces an ancient part of the area's history.

The Romans arrived in the area around Greater Yarmouth in the first century AD and settled in Caister, in fact the name Caister comes from the Latin word ‘Castra' which means fortress. In around 200AD they built a ‘Saxon Shore' fort there which was occupied by a unit of the Roman army and navy, forming one of the chief Iceni towns until the end of the 4th century. The partially excavated remains of the fort, including wall and ditch sections and building foundations can still be seen today.

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In the third century the Romans moved south-west of Caister to guard the River Yare and built another fort in the third century at Burgh Castle, the confluence of the rivers Yare and Waveney. This acted as a defence against Saxon raids arriving by water. This fort was called Gariannonum and was garrisoned by the Equites Stablesiani Gariannoneses, a detachment of the elite troops of the Stablesian auxiliary cavalry. The imposing remains of three of the walls and buttresses can still be seen today and are found just half a mile from Burgh Castle village, next to the River Waveney and overlooking Berney Arms Reach. Visitors can follow the brown signs to a free car park and walk to the castle, which is a fabulous place to picnic and for families to play. The castle is located on the Angles Way, a National Trail from Thetford to Great Yarmouth, although shorter circular walks are also available. Beautiful panoramic views of the windmill and marshes over the river, into which the fourth wall long since collapsed, are stunning whatever the time of year.


 If you would like to investigate the ruins further, why not enter this amazing competition to win a seven night holiday for up to eight people in 2016, with no restriction on dates, staying at Haven Seashore and including various attraction passes. To enter the giveaway, head over to my lovely friend My Mummy's Pennies for all of the details.